The paper deals with the Russian émigrés’ pilgrimage to the Holy Land after the Second World War. The author analyzes the phenomenon of the restoration of group pilgrimages as a process of reinventing the pilgrimage tradition first developed mainly in the peasant milieu at the turn of the twentieth century. The annual trips from France organized by Bishop Methodian Kulman served as the basis for the new pilgrimage movement and the formation of a new community of “co-pilgrims”, uniting Russian Orthodox emigrants from all over the world.

This article describes the changes in understanding the role and identity of the Russian Orthodox priesthood during late 18th — mid-19^th centuries. The analysis of normative texts defining the image of parish priests reveals the gradual differentiation of the social contexts. While at the start of the period the priest acts within a more or less homogenous society, during the first decades of the 19th century this context is gradually reconsidered within binary opposition of church vs. civil (secular).

At the end of Russia’s old regime, the transformation of society initiated by the Great Reforms of the 1860s had also transformed the Orthodox Church. After the Emancipation, former serfs found new opportunities as laborers, factory workers, entrepreneurs, and even priests, monks, and holy men. Vasilii Karpovich Podgornyi was one such serf who, after Emancipation, became a successful businessman. Inspired by traditional piety he used his entrepreneurial skills to create networks of religious communities, primarily composed of pious women.

The article deals with the so‑called Renovationist schism in the Russian Orthodox Church in the 1920–1940s. The nature of Renovation‑ ism is not obvious, which led to the emergence of different historiographical concepts. This phenomenon is explored here on the basis of a wide range of sources, both open (as the press of the 1920s) and previously classified documents (primarily from secret services and the highest Soviet authorities). The real nature of the interaction between the “Living Church” and the GPU in the 1920s and in subsequent years is analyzed.

The article analyzes the composition of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church in 1917. It presents the social portrait of the bishops who were members of the Synod just before and during the Revolution. The article explores the social origin, educational background, time of priestly and monastic ordination, and the length of office of all pre‑Revolutionary Synodal members. The author then makes the similar analysis of the new Synod nominated by the “revolutionary” ober‑procurator V.N. Lvov.